Crime spanning 20 years: how Liovochkin family legalised land purchased with money stolen from state
The 20-Year Scheme: How Liovochkin’s Circle Reclaimed the Borzhava Lands
Yes, the land that was seized as part of a criminal investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) for deals made during Yanukovych's presidency has once again returned to those who have been trying to appropriate it for 20 years.
In the summer, Bihus.Info released a story about how Vladislav Kaskiv, a member of the Zakarpattia Regional Council from the banned Opposition Platform — For Life party, regularly travels to Kyiv to meet with MP Serhii Liovochkin, former head of Ukrbud Ihor Kushnir, and talks to Ihor Palytsia, where he consults on the construction of the Borzhava resort project in Zakarpattia.
Generations have grown up in Ukraine who do not remember who Kaskiv is and do not fully understand Liovochkin's role in the Ukrainian government, not to mention the scheme itself, which began 20 years ago and for which no one has ever been punished. And, obviously, no one ever will.
During this time, Ukraine has had five parliaments and four presidents, but there is one politician who has managed to survive under all governments and avoid punishment.
However, since few people remember when and how it all began, and what damage it has caused to the state (not only in terms of land allocation), let's start from the beginning. At the same time, it will become clear why, despite the change of four presidents, the scheme is still being implemented.
It all started in 2004...
It is hard to believe, but it all began back in 2004, when an initiative from the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration to build the Borzhava Polonyna recreation centre in the Volovets and Mizhhirya districts appeared on the Cabinet of Ministers' website.
For a project worth $25 million, 300 hectares of Transcarpathian land were given away, just like that.
In 2007, Andrii Bantser's company "Profit Management" won the investment competition. In addition to this company, he was also involved in "Profit Consulting Group." And through this company, it was possible to reach "Greenfield Alliance LLC," founded by Serhii Shut and Oleksandr Matkovskyi. They are close to Vladyslav Kaskiv. And the latter (still in the guise of a young politician of the Orange Revolution era) travelled to Pylypets to persuade people to sell their land.
Sometime after the Revolution of Dignity, a good article was published with a list of all the people who had acquired land.
But the most intensive development of Pylypets began in 2010. And not only in terms of land, but also money.
In December 2010, Kaskiv (reportedly with the assistance of Serhii Liovochkin) was appointed head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine. And in the autumn of 2011, Azarov's Cabinet allocated more than half a billion hryvnias to national projects. Against the backdrop of thefts amounting to three billion hryvnias on a single contract by the Ministry of Defence, this may sound ridiculous now, but at that time the dollar was trading at 8, not 41.
None of the investment projects were implemented before the change of power in 2014, and Kaskiv is remembered only for the scandal with a ski instructor who signed a fake agreement for the construction of an LNG terminal and an unbuilt railway to Boryspil.
When Kaskiv was exposed for the scam, he spent a long time justifying himself and pointing the finger at the Kremlin.
In fact, Kaskiv was then head of the National Agency under the quota of Liovochkin, who, in his usual manner, was at war with Borys Kolesnykov. Therefore, if there was a hand behind it, it was not the Kremlin's, but one of the groups in Yanukovych's entourage.
After the Revolution of Dignity, Kaskiv's scams were actively investigated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General's Office, and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau with the aim of reaching former state leaders, including Yurii Boyko, but it became clear that the only people involved in the schemes were relatives and friends of the head of the State Investment Project, as well as the movement of funds through offshore companies and the bank of People's Deputy and business partner of Dmytro Firtash, Ivan Fursin.
Kaskiv himself fled the country at that time and hid in Panama for some time, from where he was extradited. But this was on a very ridiculous and minor charge of placing billboards. As a result, Kaskiv's bail was paid by the father of his childhood friend Ivan Suslov, and Kaskiv himself went to live peacefully in Austria.
Photo: Max Levin, Left Bank
On 1 August 2018, NABU reported the completion of its investigation into eight individuals involved in the embezzlement of budget funds from Derzhinvestproekt on the Olympic Hope 2022 and Quality Water projects.
Among others, Vladyslav Kaskiv's long-time friend and his two brothers were suspected.
But not the head of the State Agency himself.
Incidentally, there were many questions at the time as to why the appeal to Panama was made in this way. This effectively took Kaskiv out of the firing line.
And the rhetoric of those who were handling the case at the time was very "interesting". They said that he did not make the payments through the bank and did not sign the documents. The investigators hoped to catch him through his two brothers, but were not very successful.
How to steal budget money and buy land and a helicopter
The embezzlement scheme itself, which was investigated first by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and then by NABU detectives, is described in great detail.
The main characters in the NABU materials are
— Serhii Shut, former deputy head of Derzhinvestproekt, who also held the position of advisor to the director of the State Investment Company;
— Vadym Bey, a former employee of Derzhinvestproekt;
— Yurii Lutak, former director of the State Investment Company;
— three directors of private companies with signs of fictitiousness — Andrii Stelmakh, Ruslan Usov, Andrii Bantser;
— Oleksandr Matkovskyi, cousin of the former head of Derzhinvestproekt;
— former driver and assistant to the former head of Derzhinvestproekt Serhii Moiseienko.
From the materials of the court registers related to the investigation in this case, it is clear that instead of attracting investors for the implementation of the projects "Quality Water" and "Olympic Hope-2022," those in power built their own network through which they transferred budget funds to their companies.
Kaskiv had a deputy at the agency, Serhii Shut, to whom he had previously registered all his assets.
The deputy director general, later director general of the State Investment Company, Yurii Lutak, and the head of the lending and investment department of the State Investment Company, Andriy Lemish, also worked there.
In the summer of 2012, they effectively created Borzhava Resort LLC and Construction Company Kombud LLC under the guise of a tender.
Serhii Lidov, Shut's former driver, was appointed director of Borzhava Resort LLC. In addition, Shut's sister Oksana Semykina and his cousin Oleksandr Matkovskyi were among the participants in the LLC.
Later, another participant in the company was Borzhava Balneario LLC, registered to Matkovskyi and Shut's cousin Oleksii Diadik. Shut's third cousin, Vira Rul, was appointed director of the company.
As NABU detectives discovered during their investigation, the registration documents and seal of the company were kept by Shut and Kaskiv's brother, Oleksandr.
The accounts of Borzhava Resort were managed by the Kyiv branch of Misto Bank, owned by Ivan Fursin, a member of parliament from Firtash's group, and Oleksandr Matkovskyi, Kaskiv's cousin.
In July 2012, the construction company Kombud LLC was established, registered to Shut's driver Ruslan Usov. It was these companies that received money for Olympic Hope. Later, the managers of Derzhinvestproekt found their front companies and another project, "Quality Water." Veritas In LLC was headed by the brother-in-law of the head of the lending department, Lemish Padalka, and Priazovspetscomplect LLC was headed by Matkovskyi's acquaintance, Andrii Stelmakh.
Having created or headed companies in Ukraine, Kaskiv, his brother and cousin, as well as Shut and unidentified individuals, created non-resident companies in offshore jurisdictions:
Septemero Holdings Limited (Republic of Cyprus), Korsk Enterprices Limited (Republic of Cyprus), Yonkers Marketing Limited (Republic of Cyprus), Monstarol Holding LTD (Republic of Cyprus), Talemba Holdings Limited (Republic of Cyprus), Adoramus Investment Limited (Republic of Seychelles), Glenshaw Limited (Republic of Cyprus), Klikate Limited (Republic of Cyprus), Velma Operations Limited (Belize), Wetherby International (Republic of Seychelles), Lambscroft Ventures Limited (Republic of Cyprus).
No extra people were hired for the scheme: for example, the bank accounts of Korsk Enterprises Limited (Republic of Cyprus), Yonkers Marketing Limited (Republic of Cyprus), Talemba Holdings Limited (Republic of Cyprus), and Adoramus Investment Limited (Republic of Seychelles) were opened by Shut's driver, Usov, and Kaskiv's driver, Moiseienko.
Next, Borzhava Resort and Kombud create the illusion of economic activity — Kombud allegedly undertakes to perform work on the design and construction of a hotel and resort complex with ski infrastructure with a total area of 234,475 square metres, for which Borzhava Resort LLC undertakes to pay 376.6 million hryvnias.
On 31 October 2012, on Kaskiv's initiative, the Cabinet of Ministers repealed the resolution on the procedure for conducting the competition, allowing Derzhinvestproekt to manipulate the winners (you are not mistaken, they had already done so seven years earlier). And just two weeks later, as part of the "Quality Water" project, Borzhava Resort LLC received 135 million hryvnias, and Veritas In LLC received 65.7 million hryvnias.
In December 2012, another winner of the "Quality Water" competition was the company TD Borisfen LLC, which the State Investment Project dealers again registered to Stelmakh and issued to it first 65.7 million hryvnias, and then another 29 million. In January 2013, Shut, Lemish, Stelmakh, and Bey, through manipulation of fees and signed documents, transferred Borisfen to 100% ownership of Klikate Limited (Republic of Cyprus).
After that, almost 40 million hryvnias received by Borzhava Resort LLC were converted into 5 million dollars, and corporate rights of Profiit Consulting Group LLC were purchased for them through the Cypriot company Septemero Holdings Limited.
This firm has already been mentioned here and was established by Kaskiv and his friends back in 2006. The sole owner of the share in the authorised capital of Profiit Consulting Group LLC was Greenfield Alliance LLC, represented by director Matkovsky and Shuta's sister Semykina, who also registered Borzhava Resort, which received budget funds.
The rest of the funds received as a loan from the State Investment Company, Borzhava Resort LLC, were transferred to the account of Talemba Holdings Limited, opened at Trasta komercbanka, Miesnieky iela 9, Riga LV1050, Latvija, Riga, namely:
on 22 April 2013, in the amount of 8.96 million US dollars, in accordance with the agreement on the sale and purchase of shares in the authorised capital dated 28 March 2013 between Solomiya LLC and Volovetsky Food Products Plant LLC;
9 October 2013 in the amount of USD 2.35 million under the agreement for the sale and purchase of shares in the authorised capital dated 27 September 2013 with Karpatia Holding LLC;
30 January 2014 in the amount of USD 3.2 million under the agreement for the sale and purchase of a share in the authorised capital dated 23 January 2014 of Fortuna Zatyshok LLC.
Solomiya LLC and Volovetsky Food Products Plant LLC were purchased within two days by a man named Vnukov, who was hired for this scheme.
Karpatiya Holding and Fortuna Zatyshok were registered through several front men to a driver named Shut Usov. After that, 444 land plots in the Zakarpattia region were purchased.
The land was registered to: Karpaty Tour Group LLC (EDRPOU 33763180); Borzhava SKI LLC (EDRPOU 33328793); Borzhava Balnerio LLC (EDRPOU 35745412); Borzhava Resort LLC (EDRPOU 35104676); Profit Consulting Group LLC (EDRPOU 34527841); Solomiya LLC (EDRPOU 32741187); Volovets Food Products Plant LLC (EDRPOU 00377868); Karpatia Holding LLC (EDRPOU 38863606); Fortuna Zatyshok LLC (EDRPOU 38963105); Borzhava Resort Holding LLC (EDRPOU 38865708); Borzhava Development LLC (EDRPOU 38910231); Dumka LLC (EDRPOU 32610424); Borzhava Invest LLC (EDRPOU 38928102); Borzhava Land LLC (EDRPOU 38939512); Taurus Property LLC (EDRPOU 38970070); Taurus Estate LLC (EDRPOU 38956632); Taurus Invest LLC (EDRPOU 38962929); Taurus Land LLC (EDRPOU 38969992).
As can be seen from the dates, the money was desperately being spent even at the height of the Maidan protests. The same thing happened with the "Quality Water" project.
Throughout this period — from 2013 to 2016 — Borzhava Resort, Borisfen Trading House, Borzhava Resort Holding LLC, Borzhava Land LLC, Borzhava Development LLC, Borzhava SKI LLC, Greenfield Alliance LLC, Profit Consulting Group LLC, Taurus Property LLC, Taurus Land LLC, Taurus Invest LLC, Taurus Estate LLC, Svalyava Land LLC, Dumka LLC, Fortuna Zatyshok LLC, Karpatia Holding LLC, Karpatia Tour LLC, and Project Fortuna LLC used a single telephone number provided by the operator International Telecommunications LLC to conduct their business activities.
Another expense should be mentioned separately: on 21 August 2013 and 30 August 2013, Vladyslav Kaskiv's brother Oleksandr purchased USD 320,000 and USD 17,902 on behalf of Glenshaw Limited (British Virgin Islands) through Archer Trading and Services Limited (British Virgin Islands) on behalf of Glenshaw Limited (Republic of Cyprus) a Robinson R44 helicopter and a VIPER SD-4 aircraft (registration number UR-PORA), "which were subsequently operated in Ukraine by V.V. Kaskiv on a private basis," according to the case file.
During Yanukovych's time, it seemed that Kaskiv's ability to carry out his schemes so freely was aided by the patronage of the Liovochkin-Boyko-Firtash group. And during Poroshenko's time, the fact that the presidential administration at that time was living in a cloud of illusions that their main competitor in the elections would be Yurii Boyko could have played a significant role in this.
These plans did not come to fruition. But as it turned out, under Zelenskyy, no one drove Kaskiv and his company from Borzhava away either.
On the contrary. In the autumn of 2020, he was elected to the Transcarpathian Regional Council from the Opposition Platform – For Life party. Although at that time his case was still being heard in court.
"Olympians" from the Austrian reserve school named after Liovochkin
And since July 2020, President Zelenskyy's Office, headed by Andrii Yermak, has begun discussing the creation of the Borzhava high-altitude all-season sports and tourism cluster again. Once again, this is part of another crazy idea for the Winter Olympics.
The key guest who presented the programme was Austrian Gernot Leitner.
At the time, Leitner owned the Slovak company Carpathian Mountain Resort, s.r.o, which owns Borzhava Eset LLC, Borzhava Resort Holding LLC, Taurus Estate LLC, Borzhava Ski LLC, Sky Land LLC, Borzhava Development LLC, Borzhava Land LLC, Borzhava Invest LLC, Dumka LLC, Taurus Invest LLC, Taurus Land LLC, and Taurus Property LLC.
Later, journalists from OCCRP (Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) gained access to correspondence from the former head of the State Investment Project, Vladyslav Kaskiv, as well as personal assistants and confidants of OPZZh MPs Serhii and Yulia Liovochkin.
The emails, covering the period from 2014 to 2016, showed, among other things, that Yulia Liovochkina was involved in managing the accounts of the Austrian company Teleferic Holdings GMBH, which was registered to Austrian citizen Gernot Leitner.
Leitner's 12 companies were managed by Iryna Kukh, a former employee of the State Investment Project when it was headed by Kaskiv.
By the end of 2021, these 12 companies owned 450 hectares of land in Zakarpattia, where they planned to build the Borzhava ski resort.
In other words, Kaskiv is back, only this time under a Slovak-Austrian guise. Plus, his wife's relatives are also involved.
In 2023, journalists again learned that in May 2022, Oleksandr Pavlushyn, the former father-in-law of Oleh Tatarov, deputy head of the President's Office, registered an individual entrepreneur in Zakarpattia at the same address as the Lyater Charitable Foundation.
In 2024, during an investigation, Hromadske journalists discovered that Vladyslav Kaskiv, a member of the Zakarpattia Regional Council from the Opposition Platform — For Life party, was trying to "take away" land plots from local entrepreneurs in the village of Pylypets in Zakarpattia for the construction of a ski resort.
In particular, Ivan Borychko, owner of the Berloga hotel, reported being pressured. In addition, journalists had previously reported that Davyd Arakhamia, a member of parliament from the Servant of the People party, had visited the site where the resort is planned.
"I am not involved in reputation management," David Arakhamia, head of the Servant of the People faction, explained to journalists about his joint trip with Vladislav Kaskiv, a current member of the Transcarpathian Regional Council from the banned Opposition Platform — For Life party, to the village of Pylypets in Transcarpathia.
Kaskiv and Arakhamia also appeared together in Mykhailo Tkach's reports on gatherings of powerful figures in Kyiv restaurants.
Resort and new owners
In the summer, Bigus released a new investigationinto how Kaskiv regularly travels to Kyiv to meet with MPs Serhii Liovochkin and Ihor Palytsia.
The latter confirmed to journalists that they had discussed a resort project in the village of Pylypets.
"Kaskiv told me about the Borzhava resort, what they were going to do there, and asked me to advise them. I said no, I'm not interested," Palytsia said.
In addition, journalists noticed former Kyivmiskbud president Ihor Kushnir at meetings on other days. He also confirmed that the topic of conversation did not concern the Borzhava resort. Businessman and developer Valerii Kodetskyi was also spotted there.
Kodetskyi, together with Renata Huseinova (Kaskiv's common-law wife) and Andrii Vinhranovskyi (husband of Yulia, sister of MP Liovochkin), have a joint company, Borzhava Centre LLC.
"In addition, Kaskiv's associates are developing land in Pylypets and the surrounding area. In particular, Huseynova's father and Austrian investor Gernot Leitner, who is associated with Kaskiv, have registered a land easement for 25 hectares in Pylypets for the installation of ski lifts," Bihus.Info reported.
Meanwhile, the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration has submitted a project to the Cabinet of Ministers to change the designated use of some forest areas for recreation. This will potentially allow for the development of the above-mentioned lands.
Journalists also noted that, at the same time, the Transcarpathian Regional Council "contrary to its powers" changed the boundaries of the Temnatik forest reserve — approximately 240 hectares of forest.
"We received all the documents, all copies of cartographic materials, and this decision states: 'It turned out that the reserve should be located not on one side of the ridge, but on the other side of the ridge. When we put this on the map, we saw that, by a very strange coincidence, the very areas that interfere with the construction of the future resort were excluded from the reserve," said Petro Testov, an analyst at the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group.
All of the above-mentioned lands practically encircle 460 hectares, which companies linked to Kaskiv's circle bought up during Yanukovych's presidency with money withdrawn from the State Investment Project.
"After the court's decision, these plots were placed at the disposal of ARMA, which has already put them up for auction six times. But there were no takers. Given all this, it can be assumed that Kaskiv and Co's resort project could now expand to 800 hectares," suggested journalists from Bihus.Info.
And now Liovochkin has finally officially entered the game.
On 8 January 2026, the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) sold 460 hectares of land in the Borzhava mountain pasture (Zakarpattia region) for 89.5 million hryvnias.
This is known from the results of the auctions, reported Ekonomichna Pravda.
The land was divided into three lots, for which three auctions were held simultaneously.
Since the bidding took place in the form of a "Dutch auction" (starting with a starting price that gradually decreases until someone agrees to purchase the asset), and only one bidder participated in each auction, the sale took place at the lowest possible prices.
AndriyVingranovsky purchaseda plot of land with an area of 26.7366 hectares for UAH 5.4 million (starting price UAH 10.4 million). He also became the owner of 199.1488 hectares, paying UAH 39.1 million ata starting price of UAH 75.2 million. A plot of land with an area of 234.77 hectares was purchased by Ihor Vlasyuk for UAH 45 million (starting price UAH 88.2 million).
Vingranovsky is the owner of Ombri Investment LLC, which is part of the Liovochkin family's corporate group. He is also the husband of Yulia Liovochkina.
Vlasiuk is the founder of Borzhava Eset LLC, whose ultimate beneficial owner is Vinhranovskyi.
In other words, the land seized in the Kaskiv case, purchased with money stolen from the state, has returned to the same people. The only difference is that Liovochkin is no longer a shadow figure, but a full-fledged family member. He is now even the legitimate owner of what was once stolen from the state and paid for with state money.
And the current Ukrainian government allowed this deal to go through.
Incidentally, the other figures in the case reached an agreement with the investigation.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor.NET
